Becoming new urbanites: residents’ self-identification and sense of community in ‘village-turned-community’

In the process of rapid urbanization, the Chinese have seen the disappearance of a large number of villages and the emergence of ‘village-turned-community’. Many peasants move into newly built communities and become new urbanites. Based on fieldwork and a questionnaire survey, this research finds that these new urbanites are actually a new type of urban migrants, who must adjust to the transition in terms of self-identification and their community. Compared with migrant workers and landless peasants in the suburbs, residents in ‘village-turned-community’ are slower to accept the label of ‘new urbanites’.